project_nuzlockedexfandomcom-20200214-history
Shroomish Line/RSE
Shroomish is only available in Petalburg Woods, in all three games. Its encounter rate is low, but becomes marginally better with duplicates clause on. One of the most difficult Pokémon to obtain in Hoenn, not to mention the only Grass/Fighting-type in existence before Kalos games came around. Shroomish is a very unique Pokémon, with a somewhat erratic moveset to offer; it has a role that no other Grass-type covers, being physically oriented rather than special. Despite the unkindness generally reserved to the Grass folk in general, Breloom is actually capable of turning out useful in a few occasions during the game, particularly in its early and mid-late sections; Hoenn being a Water-heavy region certainly makes it even more useful than normal. Important Matchups * Gym #1 - Roxanne (Rustboro City, Rock-type): Absorb is all you'll ever need to win this battle. Nosepass may need some healing, due to having a simple weakness (instead of a double weakness, like the Geodude/s) and a much better defensive asset, but at worst you will need some healing, as Shroomish can take hits fairly well. If you already have Mega Drain, the fight will be a cakewalk. * Rival (Rustboro City, Emerald only, optional): * Gym #2 - Brawly (Dewford Town, Fighting-type): A dangerous matchup, due to Shroomish's slowness and the Bulk Ups that the opponents can set up. Both Machop and Makuhita have it in Ruby and Sapphire, and so does the additional Meditite in Emerald. Critical Karate Chop will hurt a lot from Machop, and Mega Drain is probably not enough to do it in; likewise for Makuhita, which has the possibly even stronger Arm Thrust. As for the Emerald Meditite, go ahead and mass spam Mega Drain, as its only offensive move is Focus Punch; keep in mind, however, that it will most likely set up Reflect and/or Light Screen while you do that, which will make Makuhita harder to defeat later. In general, if you have a swifter way of disposing of his Pokémon, use that. * Rival (Route 110): * Gym #3 - Wattson (Mauville City, Electric-type): The helpfulness of Breloom is very remarkable in this fight: not only the Electric resist gives it the upper hand over Wattson's STAB, it also has Mach Punch to quickly dispose of both Magnemite and Magneton. The lead Voltorb should either be Headbutted or avoided; due to its high Speed and Selfdestruct, Breloom could be in danger facing it. Even if it doesn't boom, it will Sonicboom or Spark, leaving a considerable dent and/or paralysing Breloom, which is best saved for his Steel-types. Watch out for Thunder Wave; while Mach Punch's priority doesn't care much for Speed, the 50% fully paralysed chance is still there, and it could hit you in the most unwanted moment. In Emerald, he has Electrike instead of Magnemite, and Manectric as an addition; Headbutt should do well against both, but once again, be very wary of paralysis, which might also strike you with their Static ability. If you want Breloom to solo Wattson, bring healing items, Parlyz Heals in particular. * Maxie/Archie (Mt. Chimney): * Gym #4 - Flannery (Lavaridge Town, Fire-type): Literally everything on her team has Overheat, except one of the Slugma in Ruby and Sapphire, which "only" has Flamethrower. Definitely not the kind of battle Breloom should be fighting. * Gym #5 - Norman (Petalburg City, Normal-type): The level curve is sadly not in Breloom's favour here; Sky Uppercut, which is the one sure ticket to victory, comes at level 36, which would require conspicuous overgrinding. In Ruby and Sapphire, Bulk Up against his lead Slaking would be an option, but dicey at best; you don't know whether or not it'll use Encore or Yawn, ruining your setup and forcing you to switch. Mach Punch will not dent it considerably, either. Vigoroth should go down in two Mach Punches, but the second Slaking won't; it does tend to use Focus Punch a lot, though, so you could potentially defeat it unscathed if the AI selects that move. In Emerald, his lead Spinda has Psybeam, but is actually good setup material due to its low stats; if you manage to Bulk Up until +4 or more, healing in between (as it has Teeter Dance), then Mach Punch should one-shot everything on his team except Slaking, which should still go down in at most two hits. It is, however, better to get to +6, as Slaking has Counter here. * Courtney/Shelly (Weather Institute): * Rival (Route 119): * Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): ...You don't seriously want to fight a Flying-type leader with a Pokémon that has a double weakness to its speciality type, do you? * Rival (Lilycove City): * Tabitha/Matt (Lilycove Hideout): * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): The only real use for Breloom here, in all three games, is taking down Solrock when it's the only thing left on the battlefield. It has Psychic, but it thankfully doesn't hurt too much, due to its low Special Attack; still, Breloom would be better off avoiding the battle altogether, since its best available move - Giga Drain - is even less powerful than that, and the risks are high if it does enter the battlefield. * Maxie and Tabitha (Mossdeep Space Center, Emerald only, tag battle with Steven): * Maxie (Seafloor Cavern in Ruby, Jagged Pass Magma Hideout in Emerald): * Archie (Seafloor Cavern, Sapphire and Emerald only): * Groudon (Cave of Origin, Ruby only): Sun-boosted Fire Blast. That's all you need to know, to realise you desperately need to get the hell out. * Kyogre (Cave of Origin, Sapphire only): Kyogre's Special Defense is beyond majestic for Breloom's poor Giga Drain, and you can't do anything against its Ice Beam. Even Surf could be a threat with the rain; don't fight it. * Gym #8 - Juan/Wallace (Sootopolis City, Water-type): In all three games, the best way of going about it is setting up Bulk Up against Luvdisc, which only has Water Pulse and Flail as offensive moves. It will be annoying with Sweet Kiss, and possibly Attract if your Breloom is male, but you can fix that with the due healing items until you're at +6. At that point, everything else on his team will go down to a Sky Uppercut, or a Brick Break if you chose it for accuracy reasons; the latter might be even preferable, as a Sky Uppercut miss is very dangerous at this stage, with Sealeo and Milotic/Kingdra carrying dangerous Ice moves. You can use Giga Drain against Whiscash, if you want to recover some HP from the Luvdisc fight, though you should not need to. * Wally (Victory Road): * Elite Four Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): Mightyena's Intimidate is annoying, and it has Roar on top of that; you are better off hitting it with your Fighting STAB, as it will probably force your switch later. Sadly, the rest of his team leaves no room for Bulk Up either, for various reasons; Cacturne has Leech Seed, Shiftry has Extrasensory, Sharpedo has Swagger and Absol has Aerial Ace. In Emerald, he has a Swords Dance Crawdaunt instead of Sharpedo. Just Brick Break or Sky Uppercut everything after you negate the Attack nerf from Mightyena's Intimidate. * Elite Four Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): Nothing to do for Breloom here, which can at best hit for not very effective damage with Sludge Bomb; Giga Drain will never be fast enough to dispose of her ghosts, especially with how bulky the two Dusclops are. Plus, one of the Banette has Psychic, and Sableye could set up Double Team. Keep Breloom in the backburner for this battle. * Elite Four Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): Facing everything with STAB Ice moves is no fun, especially when they can also outspeed you. You can take down the two Sealeo with Brick Break or Sky Uppercut, but that's about it; Glalie is faster than Breloom, and Walrein is too sturdy to go down in one hit. * Elite Four Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): Entirely not worth it. You might be able to set up Bulk Up against Shelgon, as its offensive is not incredibly powerful in all three games, but you would also be outsped by everything on Drake's team except possibly Altaria, and everything on it is either too strong to go down to one Mach Punch, and/or has a move that can seriously threaten Breloom, usually in the form of Flying STAB or Flamethrower (or both). If you really want to, do it in Ruby and Sapphire where Altaria doesn't have Flying coverage; don't try it in Emerald, because everything is out there to destroy you. * Champion Steven (Ever Grande City, Steel-type, Ruby/Sapphire only): The lead Skarmory must be avoided due to Aerial Ace, and the same is true for Armaldo; Metagross is far too powerful and has STAB Psychic, which is possibly even worse. The others are okay: Claydol has Earthquake and Ancientpower, both of which Breloom resists; it does have the screen moves, but a few Giga Drains should do it in. Be careful that, if you run out of PP, you'll have to rely on the not very effective Fighting moves, or Return/Sludge Bomb if you have them; this is a fight better won with Leech Seed if you kept it, especially since it will give you decent per-turn recovery. Aggron's only physical move is Earthquake, which once again you resist; go ahead and smash it. The same works for Cradily, which does however have Sludge Bomb, so be sure to not tackle it when at low health; its Attack is not majestic, but the weakness will still hurt. * Champion Wallace (Ever Grande City, Water-type, Emerald only): A matchup that's good on paper, but makes Breloom a sad panda in practice. Wailord has Blizzard, meaning it's difficult to set up against it, unless you can somehow deplete its PP; this is doable if you taught Substitute to Breloom, and it misses at least once in the first three turns and/or it sets up Rain Dance, but otherwise dicey. Tentacruel is a no, it has both Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb. Whiscash is doable, but you're probably better off one-shotting it with Giga Drain, since it could retaliate with Hyper Beam; Ludicolo's Double Team is terrible, but only really annoying for Breloom, which can't be Seeded - take it down with Sludge Bomb, or your Fighting STAB if you don't have the former, and don't be afraid as all its moves are not very effective against you, and only Rain-boosted Surf will really do remarkable damage. Gyarados' Dragon Dance should be enough of a reason to make Breloom duck in fear; lastly, Milotic should only be tackled if you managed to get +4 or more Bulk Up boosts, as it can go down to Brick Break or Sky Uppercut in that case, but otherwise makes Breloom vulnerable to Ice Beam. * Post-Game: Don't torture yourself. That's it. Moves Shroomish starts with Absorb and Tackle, which is fairly standard for an early game Grass-type. It learns Stun Spore at level 7, which is very useful for compensating for its low Speed as well as exploiting the chance of paralysis; catching will also be simpler. It will then learn Leech Seed at level 10, another useful move for longer battles against not-so-strong enemies, particularly since Shroomish has fairly good defenses for an unevolved Pokémon. Mega Drain comes at 16, and is a very welcome upgrade to Absorb; then there is Headbutt, at 22, right before evolution, which is in turn an upgrade to Tackle. Breloom's high Attack makes Headbutt a powerful move early on, about as much as Linoone's, even if it is learned slightly later compared to the Zigzagoon line. After evolution, Breloom gets Mach Punch at level 23; this should replace either Stun Spore or Leech Seed, preferably Stun Spore due to accuracy. Hold on tight to Mach Punch, as Breloom won't get any other Fighting STAB for a while. Counter comes at 28, but with Breloom's frailty and many weaknesses, most of which are special, it is not really advised; at level 36, instead, it learns the very useful Sky Uppercut, one of the best Fighting moves in the whole generation, which backed up by Breloom's great Attack will deal a lot of damage to many Pokémon. The rest is not really worth mentioning: you can do the Mind Reader and DynamicPunch combo, learning those moves respectively at level 45 and 54, but once again, Breloom's frail defenses and better move options deter players from trying that. There are some interesting TM options as well. Bullet Seed is good in place of Absorb if you don't want to wait for Mega Drain, but you won't keep it for long otherwise. After evolving, Bulk Up becomes viable as well, as Breloom's Defense is not too bad and it could actually set up against an enemy that can't hit it for supereffective damage. Giga Drain serves as an upgrade to Mega Drain; despite Breloom's low Special Attack, the Water/Ground-types will still go down to it. Brick Break is for players who prefer to trade power for accuracy, as it has 10 less BP than Sky Uppercut, but also 10% more accuracy; Sludge Bomb adds to the coverage of the line, if needed, but Poison coverage is not incredibly useful for most of the game, and only really sees any use against either of the Champions and their Grass-type. You can also opt for Return over Sludge Bomb. An interesting option given by the Emerald tutor is Substitute, which goes well with the Focus Punch TM; however, Breloom will generally be too slow or too frail to use the combination properly. Recommended moveset: Leech Seed, Bulk Up, Brick Break / Sky Uppercut, Giga Drain Other Shroomish's stats Breloom's stats * What Nature do I want? Naughty is probably the best option, as it penalises its lower defensive stat in favour of its majestic Attack stat. Adamant can work, but it will nerf Grass STAB; Brave could, but the Speed reduction could prove lethal in some cases, especially with Breloom's not-so-high base stat. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? The only plausible reason for waiting on the Breloom evolution is Spore, but it comes way too late (level 54) to be affordable, especially in a game without the Eviolite. Waiting for Giga Drain is not worth it either; evolve it whenever you can. If you have no better options, Breloom will certainly help against Wattson. * How good is the Shroomish line in a Nuzlocke? It's not your typical Grass-type, that's for sure; the problem is that even its great Attack can't use much more than the obvious Fighting STAB, so most of the matchups will still not be in its favour. It's also slowish, which makes usage more difficult. Nevertheless, for what it's supposed to do, it's a good Pokémon. * Weaknesses: Poison, Fire, Ice, Flying (x4, x2 if Shroomish), Psychic (neutrality if Shroomish) * Resistances: Ground, Water, Grass, Electric, Dark (neutrality if Shroomish), Rock (neutrality if Shroomish) * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Normal, Fighting, Ghost, Steel, Dragon, Bug (weakness if Shroomish) Category:Grass-Type Category:Fighting-Type Category:Hoenn Category:Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald